The life and times of me

I watched Frontline on PBS. It is fantastic. This episode might be the best. It will be available for online viewing Friday. Word on the Streetgot me ready. The scene of the documentary that got me the most was when students of today were shown the big photograph. They had no idea what they were seeing.

I remember watching television that summer. I remember the peaceful gathering that stretched on and on. I remember the helplessness. I remember the outside inaction against the bully. It is still sad now. We sold them out. I blamed George Bush. I still do although I do not know what he could have done.

I met one of the student leaders. He was a law professor and came to St. Louis for seminary (he is Presbyterian). He lived in my apartment complex and I met him a few times. Then, one day, I heard a “World” broadcast on NPR and there he was being interviewed. I was amazed. He essentially said that one day he would return and run for president in a democratic China.

By the way, Frontline’s episode on the Iraqi insurgency was really good too. I also checked one out of the library that they did a long time ago on global warming and it was extremely well done. I learned a lot from it about some of the measurement details that I had only sketchy details about previously. It would be nice if one could buy Frontline episodes on iTunes music store. When you stream them from their site, you have to keep clicking every few minutes – there’s no way to watch the episodes all the way through…

Your iTunes idea is very good. The way streaming works is a small hassle, and it is not portable. Public libraries ought to have these programs, too. The Saint Louis Public Library has many shows, including the global warming one, available on VHS (yuck) in the Public Performance Collection, whatever it is. I noticed that GoogleVideo has episodes of Charlie Rose for sale. All PBS programs should be available somehow.

That student from CTS and Gulf Drive was interviewed on the Frontline show the other night. I about jumped out of bed, when I saw him being interviewed. His name is either Yan Xiong or Xiong Yan. If you google him, you’ll find pictures, websites, and an mp3 interview.

Yan (as I used to call him–that’s what he went by at CTS), it appears is a now a chaplain in the US Army. He did a tour in Iraq…what amazingly diverse life experience he has! On the radio interview I found through googling him, he said that he spent 19 months in jail and was one of the Top 21 Most Wanted persons in China.

Very quiet and unassuming guy, but when Dr. Calhoun turned over his church history class to Yan for 10-15 minutes he was transformed. It was then that I saw the “student leader” who was considered influential enough to be in the Top 21 most wanted.

Oh, so he was on the Frontline broadcast. Wow, so now I have to watch it right away.

One Thanksgiving we brought a bunch of American thanksgiving fare to his family and they returned the favor with a big plate of fried rice – it was really good. I hope our turkey and dressing was as good to them.